Walking with a president: Museum’s self-guided tour makes a multitude of McKinley stops

Sunday

Sep 15, 2013 at 12:01 AMSep 15, 2013 at 3:10 PM

Museum’s self-guided tour makes a multitude of McKinley stops

Gary Brown

“President William McKinley could have stood on this street corner.”

The thought occurred to me as I strolled among the stops on the self-guided downtown tour “A Walk with the President.” I strode through history — following in the footsteps of the 25th president of the United States.

Indeed the tour, developed by Wm. McKinley Presidential Library & Museum late in the 1990s, is billed as “A Permanent Historic Walk” on its brochure. Locations listed form an eclectic mix of seven downtown Canton sites and two others a short drive away, tightly tied together by both local and national history.

The tour started in 1997 to recognize the 100th anniversary of McKinley’s first inauguration, said Joyce Yut, McKinley museum director.

“We tried to keep the stops within walking distance of each other and chose places that had something to do with McKinley. So many places still exist.”

The Repository is on the tour — Ida McKinley’s grandfather started the newspaper — and it was tempting for me to start my tour there. But, I already knew of the connection to McKinley and I have seen most of the nooks and crannies inside the structure.

THE SAXTON MCKINLEY HOUSE
So, I stepped across the street to look at what was listed as the first stop on the tour, the Saxton McKinley House.

No official tour sign remains at the property, but plenty of other signs identify the historic structure. One of them calls it the “William McKinley Historic Home” and two other signs note that it is a “First Ladies’ National Historic Site.”

Tour times for the museum operated by the National First Ladies’ Library are listed near the front door to the house. Tour-takers might want to step inside the structure to see the second floor ballroom, which was turned into a bedroom for the McKinleys during the years the couple resided with the home’s owner, banker James Saxton.

“McKinley might have sat on this porch,” I couldn’t help thinking on that late afternoon, standing on the porch and feeling the same sort of breeze that once might have cooled the president.

THE WINDOW
Across Market Avenue S, at The Salvation Army, the “McKinley Window” faces the Saxton McKinley House.

“The window depicts the president sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch of his home, flanked by United States and The Salvation Army flags,” a tour plaque in front of the window notes. “The stained glass window, believed to have been made before William McKinley’s assassination in 1901, was donated to The Salvation Army by the family.”

THE REPOSITORY
The Repository is listed third on the tour — appropriate among the sites because of the family connection, but also since the newspaper heralded the president’s election and led the community’s mourning at his passing.

“With a bold headline — ‘PRESIDENT IS DEAD’ — the newspaper began the area’s grieving,” explains the site’s plaque, “just as it had started the cheering for a favorite son when he was sent off to Washington.”

GEORGE D. HARTER BANK
Located a few blocks north is the George D. Harter Bank Building — Key Bank currently — which wasn’t built until the 1920s, but can trace its roots to the Harters who “helped bring stability to banking in Canton” during McKinley’s era, according to tour information. Inside, that tie to the past has been recognized with inscriptions “taken from the utterances of President McKinley, including speeches espousing ‘sound money.’”

THE COURTHOUSE
Stark County Courthouse stands on the other side of Central Plaza North.

“In this building William McKinley practiced law for the firm of George W. Belden,” the plaque for the location records. “The second floor courtroom is generally believed to be the room where he served.”

And between such court cases, how much law was discussed on the ground surrounding the structure? McKinley walked here on his way to work. He breathed this air. He greeted clients and colleagues on the passing streets.

MCKINLEY’S CHURCH
Within sight from the southern side of the Courthouse is Church of the Savior on Cleveland Avenue NW at Tuscarawas St. W. This was “McKinley’s Church.”

“In the sanctuary are four stained glass windows donated by Ida Saxton McKinley depicting the four phases of her husband’s life as a soldier, lawyer, statesman and humanitarian,” the site’s plaque says.

CHRIST PRESBYTERIAN
McKinley’s funeral service was held at the church, the plaque notes. And it comes to mind that one of the saddest moment in McKinley history occurred only a block away from one of the happiest occasions in his life. The last downtown site on the tour is Christ Presbyterian Church, Ida Saxton’s family church and the place where she and William McKinley were married in 1871.

WERTS VAULT
The final two sites on the tour are only minutes away by motor vehicle. A walk to them would be lengthy, but possible for strong legs.

The Werts receiving vault in West Lawn Cemetery was “used as a resting place for William McKinley from Sept. 19, 1901, until the McKinley National Memorial was completed in 1907,” says tour information.

MCKINLEY’S MEMORIAL
The McKinley memorial, the tour’s final stop and McKinley’s final resting place, rises just outside of West Lawn and adjacent to the McKinley museum. A plaque identifies the memorial as being on a tour. None probably is needed. And, for a time, there wasn’t. The plaque that stands near the memorial now was stolen and then recovered, and has since been set back in place, said Yut.

McKinley museum staff recently has begun to freshen up the tour. The brochure is being reprinted, with information on it updated by the museum’s librarian, Mark Holland. More exterior photographs of the tour stops also will be added to the brochure, Holland said, so those taking the tour can easily locate them.

“It’s time to do new brochures,” said Yut. “We have brochures at the museum, but not many. We used to have them at each site, and when we get new ones, we plan to distribute them again.”

Originally, a $1,000 community development block grant from the City of Canton and plaque sponsorships helped pay for the tour, the director said, noting that the attraction of the historical walk is that “it’s free and it’s open 365 days a year.”

“It was just to remind people that a president once walked the streets of the city,” said Yut. “When he came home, he came to Canton.”

Noted as “Additional Points of Interest” are:
10. Canton Classic Car Museum, 123 Sixth St. SW, which displays McKinley memorabilia
11. Spanish-American War Relics in Westbrook Veterans Memorial Park, 1235 Harrison Ave. NW
12. St. Peter’s Church of Canton, 726 Cleveland Ave. NW, which is in proximity to the site of the house (no longer standing) at which McKinley based his Front Porch Campaign

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